Shotlist

Live location photography, stop-motion and special effects chronicle an industry that contributes to everyday living and national defense. The documentary opens in the mile-high bauxite mines of Jamaica, from which the bauxite ore is conveyed over an aerial tramway to waiting ships, then carried to a factory. At the factory, the ore is digested, settled, washed and "unlocked" from the earth. Emerging as a snow-white powder, the "alumina" is used for soil conditioning, as an abrasive and for conversion to solid sluminum at reduction plants through the electrolytic process. To vivify the versatility and flexibility of the metal, the film employs "marching" ingots, blooms, billets and extruded shapes.
Rapidly, the film pictures aluminum applications in car styling, home appliances, packaging, "Reynolds Wrap" for cooking and preserving, as a "do-it-yourself" material, and as the key metal in jet airplanes, Diesel engines, buses and heavy industries. The ease with which aluminum can be handled is demonstrated in a sequence showing a farmer using it for siding and insulation and to irrigate a field. The piping in this scene is shown to be highly portable, being moved in sections by one person.
In a "pageant of packaging" the film presents row on row of familiar brands parading in step to stirring martial music, against a background of brilliant colors. ALUMINUM ON THE MARCH concludes that more products will join the parade, that this definitely is not "The End." [Business Screen 17:8, 1956]

Quite beautiful film propagandizing on behalf of aluminum.



Ken Smith notes: This is a beautiful industrial, complete with outstanding photography, lighting, and a great score. Sprinkled throughout are animated sequences that show an aluminum man and his metallic minions lurching across the screen in military parade fashion as "aluminium marches forth." We witness every step of this "breathtaking journey," as primitive aluminum ingots are transformed into "modern, smart-looking delivery trucks" and plain-Jane aluminum foil adds "the gleam of glamour to milady's gown." Truly, bauxite never looked so good. Sponsored by the Reynolds Metals Company, of course. (KS)
Stock shots:
stop-motion animation of aluminum ingot etc.;
bauxite mine in Arkansas and explosion; use of foil in packaging;

excellent shot of supermarket shelves;
wonderful Video Quick frozen TV dinner package;

PRODUCTS BUSES BUILDINGS HOMES INDUSTRY ASSEMBLY LINES LEISURE MARCHING CARIBBEAN MINING BAUXITE ORE MACHINES HOUSEWORK FANTASY Aluminum Industrial films Stop-motion animation Animation Surrealism Metals Manufacturing Barbecues Foil (Aluminum) Kitchens Refrigerators Appliances Women Kitchens Housewives Packaging Food Fireworks Offices Popcorn Jiffy Pop Jamaica Bauxite Mining Workers (Foundries) Workers (Women) Trailers (House) Cooking Explosions Metallurgy Supermarkets Consumerism TV dinners Television dinners Children Pots and Pans Cooking utensils
Voiceover:
"In order to ensure a constant and uninterrupted supply of this raw material [bauxite], Reynolds some years ago pioneered the development of aluminum ore deposits in Haiti"

"This never ending march of aluminum continues, an ever growing parade supplying the thousands of parts which form the products of today and the better products of tomorrow."<BR>